Something that is absolutely necessary as part of a grain free lifestyle is reading labels. Every. Single. Time. !!
As a food manufacturer myself, I can tell you that from time to time, ingredients change. They just do. There are a number of reasons for this: for anything we don’t make from scratch, sometimes our supplier changes an ingredient; sometimes we have to change suppliers; and at other times perhaps the quality of something we’re using isn’t up to par. One main difference about my company’s products? We don’t use preservatives, additives, flavorings, or hidden ingredients…EVER.
I coach my clients to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, and plead with them to stop wasting time even reading labels. However, I’m also realistic. We have busy lives! We need a few shortcuts here and there. I’ve tried to cover many of those with our unique products (all free of gluten, grains, soy, dairy, and peanuts), but pasta sauce is not one of them. And, since I personally cook almost everything from scratch, we all know… at times that can present challenges. Even I have an occasional desire to have something a little more convenient.
Previous Ingredients
That desire for convenience was being fulfilled in a small way for me with Aldi’s organic pasta sauce. The ingredients were so clean! (Note here, I’m using the past tense.)
Now, hold up! Just what does the grain-free girl do with pasta sauce from a jar?!
Actually…I used it quite a bit! It was fantastic as a pizza sauce on my cauliflower pizza crust. I absolutely fell in love making zucchini zoodles and topping them like ol’ smoky with this organic deliciousness!
Again, note that I am writing about it in the past tense. Boooo.
I am not sure in this case why Aldi made such a drastic change to the sauce; they added soy oil and sugar. That takes it off the table for this soy-free girl who avoids added sugars (read why in my health story).
It could be that they were receiving complaints about the sauce not staying fresh; I know that if I didn’t use up my pasta sauce relatively quickly after opening the jar, it would mold. (NEWS FLASH: if food becomes moldy after a period of non-use…that is a GOOD thing! It means it was not preserved and will likely be better for your body!) Soy oil and sugar both can serve as preservatives. I did tweet Aldi about it and they said 
they would notify their buying team.
This served as a good reminder to ALWAYS check the label, even if you just bought the same thing last week (they still had some of the “old” on the shelf, which I quickly remedied).
So sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope this keeps you informed of an important change in one of my favorite products.
Do you have a label alert? Let us know in the comments!
-Jen of The GGF Gourmet
4 Comments
Thanks for the info! Appreciate your attention to these details. I’m a label reader most of the time.. but it takes forever to shop. Will we ever be able to trust the buyers and sellers?
Thank you for the kind words, Francie! I’m trying hard to be the change I’d like to see in the world with my company. 🙂
Hi,
I was disappointed in the change in Aldi’s sauces as well. Do you live near a Whole Foods? I found similar organic pasta sauces there for $2.99 a jar (in MD). They are called 365 Organic. They are in the same style mason jar and have the same ingredients as the “old” Aldi’s sauces.
Thanks for letting me know! I’ve seen that brand somewhere, just not sure where. The closest Whole Foods is about an hour from me. I’ll check it out, thanks so much for the tip!